MCD poll: Rajendra Pal Gautam, Harbhajan Singh among AAP's star campaigners

New Delhi, Nov 11: The AAP on Friday announced its star campaigners for the December 4 MCD polls, naming Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, MLA Rajendra Pal Gautam, who recently quit as minister amid a row over attending a religious conversion event here, and former cricketer and sitting Rajya Sabha member Harbhajan Singh.

The list of 30 also includes the likes of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Delhi deputy CM Manish Sisodia, and Rajya Sabha members Sanjay Singh, Raghav Chadha and ND Gupta. Expenditure on electioneering by a star campaigner is not added to the candidate's poll expenses.

According to election laws, these expenses are borne by their parties. The Aam Aadmi Party's star campaigners' list also includes ministers from Delhi and Punjab cabinets such as Kailash Gahlot, Gopal Rai, Imran Hussain and the newly inducted Raaj Kumar Anand. The list also includes party MLAs such as Durgesh Pathak, Vishesh Ravi, Atishi, Saurabh Bhardwaj and ministers.

The 250-ward Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) goes to polls on December 4 and the counting of votes will take place on December 7.

The BJP has been in power in the MCD -- trifurcated in 2012 into north, south and east corporations and then unified this year -- for three straight terms. The civic polls are largely being seen as a three-cornered contest between the BJP, the AAP and the Congress.

Rajendra Pal Gautam resigned as Delhi's Minister of Social Welfare in October amid a controversy over his presence at a religious conversion event where Hindu deities were allegedly denounced.

The BJP had used the issue to attack AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal during the election campaigning in Gujarat and accused him of being "anti-Hindu".